West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1887-08-04
RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE.
sERMON BY REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Kind of Preaching and Elaboration
That Will BE i'm the Future


TEXT: Or ministry, let us ,cdit on our
transferring; or he that tedcheth, on teach
tag; OF ne that erhorteth, on erhoridtiOR.n
Romans, xii, rs.
Before the world is converted the STYLE of
religious discourse will have to be converted
You might as well go into the modern Sedan
or Gettysburg with bows and arrows instead
OF rifles and bombshells and sparks of artil-
lery, as to expect TO conquer this world for
God by the old styles of eXhortation and SER
monolgy Jonathan Edwards preached tho
sermons most adapted TO the age in which he
lived, but If those sermons were preached now
they would divide an audience into two
Glasses, those sound asleep and those wanting
70 go home.
But there is n religious discourse of the
future-who will preach il / have no idea; i'm
what part of the earth it will loo born have
no idea; in which denominations of Christians
nc viii be delivered / cannot guess. That
discourse or eXhortation may bc born in the
country meeting house on the banks OF the
st Lawrence, or the Oregon, or the Ohio, or
The Tombigbee, or the Alabama. The per
son who shall deliver IL may this moment be
IN cradle under the shadow of the Sierra
Nevadas, or in a New England farmhouse
or amid the ice-fields OF Southern Savannas
Or this moment there may be some young man
In some OF our theological seminaries, in the
Junior or middle or senior class shaping that
weapon of power. Or there may be coming
some new baptism of the Holy Ghost ON the
churches, so that some OF us who now stand
IN the watch.tower of Zion, waking 20
realization OF our present inefliciency, may
preach 1t ourselves. That coming discourse
may not be fifty years off. And let us pray
God that its arrival may be fastened, while L
announce to you what l think will be the
chief characteristics of that discourse or ex-
hortation when IL does arrive, and L want TO
make tho remarks of the morning appropri-
ate and suggestive TO all classes of Christian
workers
First of all remark, that that future re-
bgious discourse will be full of n living
Christ in contradistinction TO didactic techni-
calities. A discourse may be full Of Christ
though hardly mentioning His name, and
sermon may be empty of Christ while every
sentence is repittious of His titles The
world wants living Christ, not a Christ
standing at the head of a formal system of
theology, but IA Christ who means pardon and
sympathy, and coincidence and brotherhood
and life, and heaven. A poor mans Christ
rich mans Christ. An overworked mans
Christ. An invalid's Christ. A farmers
Christ A merchants Christ. An artisans
Christ An every mans Christ
a symmetrical and e-worded system OF
theology is well enough for theological
classes, but 1t has no more business in a pull
pit than have the technical phrases of an
anatomist or psychologist or u physician in
the sick room of IA patient. The world wants
help, immediate and world uplifting, and il
Will come through discourse i'm which
Christ shall walk right down into the immor-
tai soul and take everlasting possession of il,
filling 1t as full of light as is this MONDAY
armament.
That sermon or exhortation of the future
viii not deal with man in the thread
bare Illustrations of Jesus Christ In that
coming address there will be instances of
vicarious suffering taken right out of every
Gay life, for there is not a day somebody is
not dying for others. As the physician saw
ing his dlphtheritic patient by sacrificing his
own life; as the ship captain going down
with his vessel while he is getting his mas
sengers into the life boat; as the fire
man consuming in the burning building
while he is taking child out
of fourth story window; as i'm summer
the strong swimmer at East Hampton. or
Long Branch, or Cape May, or Lake George
hlmself persisted trying to rescue the drown
mig; as the newspaper boy one summer sup
porting his mother for some years his invalid
mother, when offered by gentleman fifty
cents TO get some especial paper, and he cot
1t, and rushed up in his anxiety to deliver it,
and was crushed under the wheels of the
train, and lay on the grass with only strength
enough to say: "Oh, what will become of my
poor sick mother nowf'
Vicarious suffering The world is full of il.
An engineer said TO me on a locomotive i'm
Dakota 1--WE men seem 10 DO coming TO
better appreciation than we used to. Did
you see that account the other day Of an
engineer who, to save his passengers stuck 10
his place, and when he was found dead i'm the
locomotive which was upside down he was
found still smiling his hand on the air-braker
And as the engineer said IL to me- he mt his
hand on the air-brake TO illustrate his mean
ing, and looked at him and thought "You
would be just as much of a hero in the same
crisis.n
Oh, in that religious discourse of the future
ehere Will be living illustrations taken out
from everyday life OF vicarious sufFerino-
illustrations that will bring 10 mind the
Bhast1er sacrifice Of Him who i'm the high
places OF the field, on the cross, fought our
battles, and wept our griefs. and endured our
struggle, and died our death
"A German 10
Christ, and he asked his little child two wears
old who It was and she said: THAT must Ice
some great man" The sculptor was dis
pleased with the criticism, so ne cot
another block OF marble, and cbis.'7ei
away on it two or three years, and then me
brought in his little child four or five wears of
age, and he said to her: who do YOU think
shat isf she said: That must be the one y,bo
took little children in his arms and blessed
Them" Then the sculptor was satisfied. Oh.
my friends, what the world wants is not a
cold Christ, not an intellectual Christ, not a
severely magisterial Christ, but a loving
Christ, spreading out His arms of sympathy
20 press the whole world to His loving heart
But, remark again, that the religious dis
course OF the future will be short. COndensa-
ton is demanded by tho age in which we live
No more need Of long introduCtions and long
applications, and 50 many divisions 20 a dis
course that 10 may be said 10 be hydra headed
In other days men got all their Information
from the pulpit. There were few books and
there we're no newspapers, and there was lit
tie travel from place % place, and people
would sit and listen two and a half
hours % a religious discourse. and
'seventeenthly' would find them fresh
and clipper. In those days there was
enough time for a man 20 take an hour 10
warm himself up 20 the subject and an hour
20 cool of, But what was a necessity then
IS a superiuity now. Congregations are full
Of knowledge from books from newspapers.
from rapid and continuous intercOmmunica-
tion, and long disquisitions Of what they
know already viii not be abided If a relig-
tous teacher cannot compress what he wishes
70 say 70 the people in the space Of forty-nve
mlnntes, better adjourn 10 10 some other dav
The trouble IS we preach audiences into a
Christian frame, and then we preach them
out Of II. We forget that every auditor has
50 much capacity Of attention and when that
is exhausted he IS restless That accident on
the Long Island Railroad some years AGO
came from the fact that the brakes were ont
Of order. and when they wanted to stop tho
train they could not stop, and hence the
casualty was terrific I'm an RELIGIONS dis
course we want locomotive power and pro
pulsion. We want at the game time stout
brakes u Jet down at the right Instant It's
y dismal thing after a hearrr has compre-
hended the whole subject 90 hear a man saw.
NOW 70 recapitulate, and "a few words by
way Of application and "Once more.n and
finally" and now 20 conclude
Paul preached until midnight and Eufv-
enu8 got sound asleep and fell out Of n win
dow and broke big neck. Some would saw.